Feminist Colonizers? French Women in West Africa, Indochina and Martinique, 1900-1939

FAIN: FT-58155-10

Jennifer A. Boittin
Penn State (University Park, PA 16802-1503)

In the early twentieth century French women and colonized men and women had in common that they were denied rights such as the vote by the French Third Republic. This project investigates how French feminists in French West Africa, Indochina and Martinique who demanded either suffrage and/or a range of other civil rights engaged with French imperialism. Their experiences were set against a backdrop of the colonized's vocal and violent discontent. This project is the first to consider how specific places in an Empire influenced women's political and social understandings of how and where their own searches for rights collided with those of imperial subjects and citizens. It argues for grounding transnational colonial systems in local studies of human interactions. Its diverse sources, comparative nature and many captivating stories will appeal to a broad readership in the humanities. With the NEH summer stipend, I would complete archival research in Dakar, Senegal and France.